FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE | Mon Oct 08 16:42:03 EDT 2012

WASHINGTON, October 8, 2012 — Smart phones almost as thin and flexible as paper and virtually unbreakable. Solar panels molded to cover the surface of an electric or hybrid car. Possible treatments for damaged spinal cords. It’s not science fiction. Those all are possible applications of a material known as graphene. This so-called “wonder material,” the world’s strongest (100 times stronger than steel) and thinnest (one ounce would cover 28 football fields), is the focus of a new episode of the ChemMatters video series. The video is at www.BytesizeScience.com.

The video, from the award-winning Digital Services Unit in the American Chemical Society (ACS) Office of Public Affairs, explains how graphene’s incredible properties originate from the unique arrangement of its atoms. ACS is the world’s largest scientific society.

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Like diamonds and coal, graphene is made up entirely of carbon. But unlike those materials, graphene’s carbon atoms are arranged in two-dimensional sheets, making it incredibly strong and flexible. Since graphene also conducts electricity as well as copper, it could lead to flexible cell phone touchscreens and transparent, inexpensive solar cells. Ongoing advances in manufacturing graphene are bringing these and other devices closer to reality.

The video is based on an article in the latest issue of ChemMatters, ACS’ quarterly magazine for high school students, and was produced by the team behind ACS’ award-winning Bytesize Science videos.

ChemMattershas been connecting chemistry to our everyday lives for the past 28 years. Published quarterly by the ACS Office of High School Chemistry, each issue contains articles about the chemistry of everyday life and is of interest to high school students and their teachers.

For additional entertaining video podcasts from ACS, go to www.bytesizescience.com. The Bytesize Science series is produced by the ACS Office of Public Affairs.

For more entertaining, informative science videos and podcasts from the ACS Office of Public Affairs, view Prized Science, Spellbound, Science Elements and Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society contact newsroom@acs.org.

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A still from the new ACS video, which highlights the properties and potential applications of the “wonder material” graphene.